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STEWARTS DATABASE
OF WORLD ROADS

Possibly the largest database of European
and World roads and low bridges anywhere in the world. Here you should be able
to find information on most UK and Ireland roads in just one place, and a lot of
European roads and E-Routes, and other World roads with some informative and
helpful stuff thrown in. There are even mpg calculators etc., and a link to Google Maps that can give you route details of a trip that you're planning. Street-view even goes around the Top Gear test-track now.

Some pages are quite large and can take a few seconds to load. Your patience is appreciated.

Here is an excerpt from the UK Highway Code about where you should drive on a UK Motorway. I'm only including this as NO-ONE seems to understand which lane they should drive in. It's ridiculous the amount of people that actually drive in the middle lane and right-hand lane, even when the road ahead is clear. Idiots.

A BRIEF NOTE (AND WHINGE!!!) ABOUT SPEED CAMERAS

For those drivers out there that don't know how speed cameras work, let me explain.

99%-ish of speed cameras are set using the 10%+2 rule. This means that if you see a 50mph speed camera for instance, then that camera WILL NOT go off and send you a speeding ticket until you are going at 57mph (50mph + 10% (5mph) + 2mph). 70mph is 70mph + 10% (7mph) + 2mph = 79mph before catching you, etc. This is even true for 'Average' speed cameras. Another thing with Average speed cameras is if you do 40mph for the first mile then you can do 60mph for the second mile giving you an average speed of 50mph. So if you're held up and then the road clears, get your foot down. Don't just sit there at the held-up speed.

A lot of these 50mph cameras are placed at road-works on motorways.

HGV's have a set speed limit in most cases of 56mph. Many more these days, because of ill-informed transport managers trying to save fuel, at between 50mph and 53mph. These vehicles have cruise-controls so the drivers can set their top speed and take their foot off the accelerator and concentrate more on their surroundings (other vehicles).

This top speed of 56mph means that they can go through road-works with 50mph speed cameras WITHOUT having to slow down.

UNTIL, that is, some lunatic in a car, not knowing how cameras work, pulls in front of the HGV and slows down. STUPIDITY. Do you, as a car driver, in your little 1tonne car know what the HGV is carrying weight-wise? It takes a lot of skill to slow 44tonnes of vehicle and load down without that load moving, and in some cases coming off that vehicle and possibly crushing a car at the side of it. Or even just running into the back of you and crushing you and your passengers.

One more point before my whinge ends. In motorway road-works when the sign says that the right-hand lane is 6' 6" wide, this is wider than most production cars' wheel-base widths. So if you're not sure how wide your car is try measuring it by lying across the rear seats and work it out from there. The number of times that I have seen the right-hand lane completely empty and the other 2 so full that everyone is crawling along is ridiculous. Car drivers, HGV's aren't allowed in the right-hand lane, so USE IT. HGV's are delivering goods that YOU want to buy and use and that driver IS working, so stop slowing them down.

p.s. I know that a lot of drivers, especially newer drivers, say that no-one has told them where to drive or how to drive through road-works. Well, the Highway Code tells you exactly where you should be, and you studied that to pass your Theory Test. It clearly states that "When not over-taking - KEEP LEFT". In other words, if the left lane is empty you're not over-taking anything so you should be in the left lane. Not lane-hogging in the middle lane.